Unsolved problems in television 

10 February 2025 tbs.pm/82837

The top table. Left to right: David Dortort, executive producer, Bonanza tv series; Berle Adams, vice president, international division, MCA-TV Ltd.; Norman Felton, executive producer, MGM Television; Sam Weisbord, vice president television, William Morris Agency; Richard Dinsmore, vice president, Desilu Sales Inc.

From ‘Fusion’, the staff magazine of Associated-Rediffusion, issue 33, December 1963

Associated-Rediffusion’s managing director, Paul Adorian, was given a dinner in his honour by the Hollywood Press Club when he visited America in October. More than 100 people attended, including many leaders from Hollywood’s television industry. In all 26 production companies and three networks were represented at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills.

The subject of Mr Adorian’s speech was ‘Unsolved Problems in Television’. One of his main points concerned our present system of transmitting and receiving television pictures.

‘I would like you to imagine yourselves transported to a planet where conditions are exactly the same as on this planet except that there is no television. If we could make a fresh start in this way, I doubt whether any of us with any technical knowledge would wish to introduce our system on that remote planet.

‘The system we have here was first put into use by John Logie Baird and subsequently adopted all over the world. We turn out three million signals every second, of which roughly 2,700,000, or 90 per cent, are an absolute repetition of the previous set of signals. So the information in each picture that we reconstruct is only changing by about 10 per cent on the previous picture, then we start all over again. It is the same as if we started from scratch everytime we do anything, such as going right through our education each time we think.

‘Obviously we do not do that – we have memories and we use them – but in television we start afresh and make a new picture every thirtieth of a second. Much work is going on in various laboratories, research organisations, industrial firms and universities and there is a lot of hope that a new system could be designed. One system being investigated would enable us to send out 900,000 pieces of information instead of three million for any particular frame.

‘It could be done if the basic picture were memorised for a fraction of a second until the next set of signals came along when only the additional information they brought would be used. This is what we do in our brains all the time knowledge is really a record of our previous pictures, or information, compared with new pictures.

‘If we send 900,000 bits of information instead of three million we are only going to take up one-third of the band width at present required. If we are generous in our allowances this would mean that we could have two pictures, two transmitters and two channels for each one that we have today.

‘Can this be achieved outside the laboratory? I doubt very much whether it would be possible before the 21st century. A lot of capital investment is involved and it might not be easy to get the population of this planet to scrap existing equipment for another system which would give them twice as much entertainment, education and information. I personally believe that even if the technical systems were changed in the next 10 years we would have to wait till the next century for this development.’

Paul Adorian

Mr Adorian also spoke about the problem of line standards. ‘The world is divided into two camps regarding line standards. As you know, the whole of Europe within a few years will be on a 625-line standard while the whole of America is on 525-lines. It is possible – it has been demonstrated in the laboratory – to make a television receiver that will receive both these line standards. So it would, therefore, be possible to arrange things so that American programmes can be seen in Britain, and British programmes can be seen in America without conversion or distortion but relayed direct by Telstar or other methods.

‘There is considerable opposition to this scheme and it has been suggested that its introduction should be deferred for another 10 years. The reason for this is difficult to explain but there is the hope that we shall all have receivers in 10 or 20 years’ time that can receive any programme from anywhere provided there is an inter-connecting link such as Telstar.’

On the balance of serious and light programmes he said: ‘This is a problem that is practically impossible to solve because tastes vary considerably, and commercial, sociological and political interests must have a big influence on the so-called balance of programmes. In some countries television is financed entirely by commercial resources; in others there are compulsory licences or tolls.

‘Yet it seems to me as an incurable optimist that gradually a kind of balance is developing in nearly every country. Public demand for different kinds of programmes eventually brings them in whether they earn money or not. It is for this reason that in almost every country where television has developed, even where it is financed out of commercial revenue, there are significant numbers of educational programmes for schools or adults, even though these programmes do not bring revenue from sponsoring. They are very expensive to produce and those of us who create such programmes are often criticised for not doing them in the way that one or another teacher think they should be done.

‘This is one of those unsolved problems which I don’t think I will attempt to make a guess at the right way of resolving.’

Next Mr Adorian discussed restrictive practices.

‘Another problem that seems to me to be very difficult to solve concerns the various restrictions or restrictive practices that are developing in different countries, not necessarily resulting in greater efficiency in production. The wasteful employment of manpower is a common problem for many of us, yet we have not found a proper solution to it.’

Finally Mr Adorian attacked programme sound levels.

‘One thing I’ve always wanted to say, if I had an opportunity of saying anything in Hollywood, although it is rather critical of Hollywood I’m afraid … Twenty-five years ago the first people who made sound films here started a fashion that every film should begin with a big noise. After that it should run down to a normal level so that people could understand what was being said. Then it finished with a very big noise again.

‘I’m sorry to say that television producers and directors have copied this practice. Most of the people who produce television programmes do not listen to them under average conditions. The directors and producers do not seem to appreciate that the large majority of the population now live very close to one another in flats – you call them apartments. What happens is that the programmes open with a loud noise so viewers go to the volume control and turn it down. Then the viewers find they cannot hear so they have to turn it up again. As the programme ends they’ve got to rush to the set to turn it down. It’s really all your fault. You ought to put it right.’